President’s Council of Cornell Women | Monthly e-News | March 2013
We're excited to share this month's e-News with you following a successful Annual Meeting a few
weeks ago. In this month's issue, we spotlight PCCW member Anika Daniels-Osaze—one of our
esteemed speakers last month—and learn her views about the future direction of education. For
those of you who were unable to attend all of the annual meeting sessions, or missed the
meeting altogether, we've summarized many of them and even provided you with a link to
PowerPoint presentations, photos and video recordings of three of the sessions. Our hope is that
this month's issue will inspire you to support at least one young girl or woman in pursuing her
educational aspirations, whether you are her mother, sister, aunt, teacher, or even her mentor.
I also want offer special thanks to new member Nicole Cramer for jumping in so quickly and
contributing an article this month. Her perspective on the annual meeting is unique, and also a
delight to read.
Please feel free to share your thoughts with us about this month's e-News.
Warm regards,
Liz Ngonzi
Chair, PCCW Communications Committee
enn1@cornell.edu
Connect with us on
MEMBER INTERVIEW
Anika DanielsOsaze
AB '96
New York, NY
PCCW member
since 2011
Anika graduated with
a
degree
in
Linguistics
and
Cognitive Studies In
1998, she received a Master of Arts degree in
Higher Education Administration from New
York University.
She has over 15 years of experience in
student affairs administration. Currently, she is
the Assistant Director of Minority Affairs and
Director of Enrichment Programs at the State
University of New York (SUNY) Downstate
Medical Center. Prior to this position, she
served as the Co-Director of the Pipeline
Access to Health-careers (PATH) program and
CALLS TO ACTION
Calling all PCCW committee chairs!
This section of the monthly e-News is your chance
to ask the PCCW membership for their help or to
simply get the word out about your recent
activities. Please submit your “call to action”
requests to Heidi Grenek, Communications
Committee member, no later than the third
Monday of each month for inclusion in that
month’s e-News.
Annual Meeting Planning Committee
We are quickly moving forward to plan our 2014
PCCW Annual Meeting. Our meeting theme will be
Women Thought Leaders and Thought Leaders
About Women's Issues. Thought Leaders are
recognized experts in their selected areas of
specialization. This theme is intentionally broad so
that we can consider a number of stimulating
topics for our meeting.
Since our membership consists of a diverse,
dynamic group of women with contacts in a variety
of disciplines, we are reaching out to you to
Coordinator of the Early Medical Education
Program at SUNY Downstate. Additionally,
Anika worked as an Undergraduate Affairs
Officer for Prep for Prep overseeing the
academic and personal achievements of 360
undergraduate students attending colleges
throughout the Northeast.
Anika is the President of the Cornell Black
Alumni Association (CBAA), a mentor through
the Cornell Alumni-Student Mentoring Program
(CASMP), a member of the President’s
Council of Cornell Women (PCCW) and
volunteers with the Cornell Alumni Admissions
Ambassador Network (CAAAN). She is also a
member of Quill and Dagger.
Top priorities in education: (a) What critical
skills and subjects should we be focusing on in
education to prepare our students for success
in the global economy? What are we doing in
our educational institutions to develop these
skills? Are there skills / subjects that are no
longer relevant and should be de-emphasized
in favor of new topics? (b)What should be our
highest priority investments?
In my field of medical school administration, I
believe that one of our top priorities is
incorporating cultural competency into the
curriculum. Cultural Competency is defined as
a set of congruent behaviors, knowledge,
attitudes, and policies that come together in a
system, organization, or among professionals
that enables effective work in cross-cultural
situations. Cultural competence comprises four
components: (a) Awareness of one's own
cultural worldview, (b) Attitude towards cultural
differences, (c) Knowledge of different cultural
practices and worldviews, and (d) Crosscultural skills. Developing cultural competence
results in an ability to understand,
communicate with, and effectively interact with
people across cultures.
Cultural competency is not “tolerance” or
“acceptance”, it is much deeper. When our
future doctors treat patients who speak
different languages, follow different belief
systems, and eat different diets, they must be
equipped with the basic knowledge that will
prepare them to diagnose and treat the needs
of this population. Our medical students are illequipped to deal with the nuances of alternate
healing methods, natural/ herbal remedies or
suggest people who would be excellent presenters
under this theme. Please send speaker
suggestions for people you personally know (or
have access to someone who knows them) and
would be willing to contact on behalf of the PCCW
Annual Meeting Planning Committee. Send your
suggestions to Daphne Mobley, committee chair.
PCCW ANNUAL MEETING RECAP
The 2013 Annual Meeting was a great success! A
big “shout out” to Daphne Mobley and her Annual
Meeting Planning Committee for putting together a
program that was both informative and relevant,
while leaving plenty of time for attendees to
network and recharge with PCCW friends both old
and new. Read on for Part 1 of our Annual
Meeting recap and stay tuned for Part 2 in our
May e-News.
Annual Meeting PowerPoints,
recordings, and photos.
Livestream
THE ANNUAL MEETING: A NEW
MEMBER'S VIEW
This “Humblefest” Is No
Tea Party: A Newbie’s
First PCCW Annual
Meeting
by Nicole V. Cramer '02
There are a few things
that you need to know
about me before you can
truly understand this experience.
First, I don't consider myself to be particularly
successful. I can say this now that I have already
been elected and I'm pretty sure that they have to
keep me for six years. But really, I'm a hard-
the use of prayer/ spiritual meditation for
healing purposes. Their focus has been more
“traditional”
methods
of
healing
and
prescription drugs.
The main issue that we face now is that we
have not committed to revamping our entire
curriculum on every level of education to
address cultural competency. This should be
our highest priority. We cannot wait until
medical school to teach this critical
information. All subjects have to be taught in a
way that various cultures are included in the
lesson. When teaching science, mathematics,
literature, etc. we must reference contributors
from a variety of cultures.
A cultural competence curriculum cannot be
an add-on to the present medical school
curriculum. We cannot claim to provide the
best medical care if we are unaware of the
various experiences that affect and influence
diverse patients. That is why continuing
medical education is so important for our
graduates.
worker, witty, well liked, often respected, have a
great job and even bigger aspirations and a great
team of people has agreed to work with me on a
daily basis (and no one has ever quit because I
was an impossible human being). Is that success?
Maybe. But by my standards that's the norm— or it
should be.
Second, you should know that I don't take much at
face value. I'm always looking behind the curtain.
And third, I'm the most self-deprecating person
you will ever meet. Sometimes it's annoying.
Sometimes it's humorous—but mostly annoying.
And with all those strikes against me (at least in
my mind), I accepted an invitation to join the
President's Council of Cornell Women praying that
I wouldn't arrive in Ithaca to find that the President
of the university I so adore, and this amazing
group of women (who I honestly couldn't even
fathom at that time) had made some heinous
clerical error and invited unassuming and earnest
little me instead of the wildly successful Dr. Nicola
W. Cramer.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
(STEM): Attracting students, particularly
women, to STEM has had renewed focus in
the last several years. What is being done to
attract students to STEM fields? What is the
biggest challenge to recruiting and retaining
students in STEM fields?
My anxious breath was held tightly as I checked in
at the registration desk and found that it was in
fact my name on the official meeting nametag. I'm
here and I'm in, I thought. And now if it's a mistake
they will just have to live with me!
From my years of experience, the best way to
attract female students to STEM fields is to start
early. Pipeline programs have shown to be
highly effective in encouraging girls to consider
these fields. The curriculum has to be made
relevant to the interest of females at each level
of education. Field trips are also very important.
When you actively engage students with exciting
programs and even provide rewards for their
accomplishments in class, you are able to
maintain their interest. Some examples of
engaging programs that my staff have
sponsored include trips to the CSI exhibit to
encourage an interest in forensic science, the
Bodies Exhibit to encourage an interest in
medicine, and shadowing opportunities in basic
science laboratories to encourage interest in
research.
No real time to strategize, think of witty
introductions, review my elevator speech or
networking 101 booklet as the first "Hi, I'm so-andso, class of blah-blah, are you new and if so,
welcome!" flowed so quickly and freely that I
immediately forgot myself and remembered - I'm
back on campus. This is equal playing ground.
Here we go!
One of the biggest challenges in recruiting and
retaining students is getting them to focus on
the end goal instead of the time required to
So, now what?
Two and a half days with over 150 of the smartest,
most engaging (and obviously well-educated)
women I have ever met at one time or in a single
year. It was absolutely exhausting. Exhausting in
the way that makes your brain unable to turn off at
night. You're racking up mental lists of all the
questions you still want to ask and you feel like
you have been running a marathon but you can't
sit down for fear of being passed or missing
something.
My marathon began weeks prior to the annual
meeting when I asked Nancy Law (my former boss
complete training for these fields. MD/ PhD
can take up to 10 years. Residencies after
medical school can take from 3-7 years to
complete. For a young woman, this can seem
like an eternity, especially if you are interested
in having a family. Research is not the most
lucrative field and is one of the hardest fields
to convince students to enter. Scholarships
can help relieve the burden of pursuing this
type of education. Research grants are also
critical.
Female students have become the majority in
almost every level of education, yet the
numbers of women in positions of power at the
various levels of education are still very low. It
is important to have women who are
successful in various fields of science conduct
presentations at the K though 12 level in order
to encourage girls to consider majoring in
STEM fields at the undergraduate level. The
image of women in science is gradually
changing in the popular media, which can be
very encouraging. Mentoring relationships both
formal and informal can help retain women in
STEM fields.
when I worked in the career center as a
undergrad) point-blank if I should consider joining
the group and if this was a group of women that
'got things done'. I could hear her laughter through
her email reply as she wrote, "my advice is, yes,
it's a great organization!"
Next I heard from Wendy Jake and later Lynn
Ambrosia. Apparently Nancy had intimated that I
was 'game for anything' and I was asked to
'answer a few questions' during one of the
mentoring lunches...no, two lunches...oh, wait, and
could you also model two blazers and...
Yes, ladies, sign me up for whatever you need and
just tell me where to go and when. I'm game!
Modeling blazers led to long chat sessions with
Deb Waterman Johns and later Jean Hill. Trolling
for coffee instantly connected me to another
newbie, Lisa Rangel. Catching an afternoon snack
led to a conversation with Co-Vice Chair, Linda
Gadsby. Making an introduction to the internship
program that we're running at McCann Worldgroup
led to uncovering two degrees of separation with
Barbie Stern; as her client is a member of our
larger Worldgroup communications family. A chat
at breakfast uncovered one degree of separation
with icon Edie Lederer; and led to a longer dinner
conversation
about
our
United
Nations
connections and the fact that we share at least
one former head of state in our 'close friends'
rolodex. And all that led to the simultaneous
discovery that Liz Ngonzi and I not only share a
passion for communication BUT went to the same
elementary, middle and high school and sit on the
same Alumni Affairs council - but had never met
in-person before. There are countless other
individuals I could mention whose names are now
on my LinkedIn page, on my Twitter feed and on
my "to call" list and will, I hope, remain friends for
years to come.
In between fantastic keynotes, impressive student
panels and inspiring lunches with current students
and grant recipients there were debates on startup strategies, the evolution of diversity, the
intersection of silicon valley and New York City;
along with the realization that one-eighth of these
women knew someone who wanted to get into the
communications field and maybe I could help.
Another quarter of these women I personally
wanted to work with or be mentored by.
This is no tea party.
This is no excuse to remember just how cold an
Ithaca winter can be or to make yet another trip to
the campus store for hockey sweatshirts.
This is a group with a mission.
I'm usually not the first to sign up for women's
conferences; or those catering to minorities or
focused on diversity. Largely I find that we're
talking to ourselves about ourselves and going
home feeling like we just had a big hug that left us
empty as soon as the arms released.
There is warmth and acceptance here, but no
empty gestures.
There are real and amazing women doing
groundbreaking work who are now on tenure track
because of the real support of PCCW. There are
real students with real dreams that now have
reality potential because of the real financial
backing and mentoring support of PCCW
members. And there are real PCCW members
who have job opportunities, career-changing
options and a support system with heft because of
the real open arms of other PCCW members.
But most importantly - there is a real forwardlooking university, high above Cayuga's waters,
that believes in the future of women in academia,
in positions of leadership, as prominent
contributors in STEM fields, as assets in all
pursuits. A university, and its leadership, who felt
this important enough to form, support and
celebrate the PCCW and its mission.
After two and half days I know exactly why each of
these women was nominated, ultimately accepted
and participates with PCCW. Each and every one,
from the members to the university liaisons, is
passionate. Their passion for what they do and
what they contribute drives who they are, drives
their success, draws mentees into their lives and
keeps them coming back to plug into this giant
electrical socket that is the PCCW.
These are not ladies who lunch. These are ladies
who eat challenge for lunch.
I'm an optimistic new member of PCCW with my
term officially beginning in July 2013. This is by no
means a full account of an annual meeting, just
one newbie's perspective. I believe that this
organization and its members have a role to play in
thought-leadership and role modeling beyond even
their current scope and accomplishments. I look
forward to the year ahead and thank all those who
made this particular journey possible. Here’s to a
bright future of women leaders and the realitypotential of every dream
MEMBER NEWS
Congratulations to Sustaining Member
Jean Parker Hill '83
Global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal
announced that Jean Hill has joined the firm’s
business consulting practice as a managing
director based in New York. Having served as a
senior IT and business executive for the past 25
years, Ms. Hill brings deep experience in business
transformation initiatives to help clients optimize
performance. Over the past decade, she has
worked on transforming complex and chaotic
business environments into streamlined, multitiered platforms to align with business goals and
strategies. Prior to joining A&M, she was the chief
technology officer of First New York Securities, a
global multi-strategy trading firm, where she built a
technology platform that allowed the business to
transform into an asset management company.
She has held a number of senior roles at the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Merrill Lynch,
DLJ and, as a managing director at Morgan
Stanley, led the global wealth and institutional
technology services organizations.
Sustaining Member Honorable Edith H. Jones
'74 Spoke at Georgia Law
Judge Edith Hollan Jones of the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 5th Circuit presented "Why the
Constitution Matters and Why Women Should
Care" as the University of Georgia School of Law's
Edith House Lecturer on March 20, 2013.
Jones has served as a federal judge since 1985,
when she was appointed to the bench by
President Ronald Reagan. During her 28-year
tenure with the 5th Circuit, she also served as the
court's chief judge from 2006 to 2012, as a White
House Fellows Commissioner from 2002 to 2008
by appointment from President George W. Bush
and as a member of the National Bankruptcy
Review Commission from 1994 to 1997 by
appointment from U.S. Supreme Court Chief
Justice William Rehnquist.
Congratulations to Member, Cheryl B. Pegus
MD '88
Vision-Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:VSCI), a leading
provider of unique flexible endoscopic products
utilizing its proprietary sterile disposable
EndoSheath(R) technology, announced that Dr.
Cheryl Pegus, a renowned cardiologist and
physician executive, has been appointed to the
company's board of directors, effectively
immediately. Dr. Pegus has more than 24 years of
clinical practice and medical management
experience. She currently is a Director of Glytec,
LLC, a glycemic clinical software organization in
the forefront of in-patient diabetes management.
She is also a Strategic Advisor to HealthFleet,
Inc., an online interactive prevention company.
Previously, she was Chief Medical Officer for
Walgreens, responsible for Clinical Affairs, Clinical
Quality, Outcomes and Analytics, Employee
Health and Wellness, and Clinical Sales. From
2007-2010, she served as the General Manager
and founding Chief Medical Officer for SymCare
Personalized Health Solutions, a start-up company
of Johnson & Johnson. She also held positions of
increasing responsibility at Aetna, including the
Head of Clinical Products for the Medical Products
Business Unit, Inc. and early in her career, served
as Medical Director for the Cardiovascular Risk
Factors Group at Pfizer.
Congratulations to Sustaining Member, Ana
Gabriela Pinczuk '84, MS MechE '85!
The Anita Borg Institute (ABI), a non-profit
organization focused on the advancement of
women in the high-tech industry, announced its
newest Board of Trustees member, Ana Gabriela
Pinczuk, senior vice president of Services
Transformation for Cisco. Together with the other
members of ABI's Board of Trustees, Pinczuk will
work to promote the recruitment, retention, and
advancement of women in technology.
President's Council of Cornell Women
Office of Volunteer Programs
Alumni Affairs and Development
pccw@cornell.edu
alumni.cornell.edu/pccw/